Meet the Team
Our SLO Chapter Executive Committee and Officers are dedicated to preserving our ocean, waves, and beaches.
Niel Dilworth is Chair of the SLO Chapter Executive Committee and coordinates the Blue Water Task Force for the Chapter. He is an architect with his own practice in San Luis Obispo and and swims with the Avila Dolphins four times a week at Avila Beach, so he is intimately familiar with the need for clean and safe ocean water. He joined the Blue Water Task Force in 2012 because of his concern about the cleanliness of the water he was swimming in.
Brad Snook is Vice Chair of the Executive Committee and program coordinator for the Chapter's Know Your H20 program. Previously, he served on the Executive Committee for over ten years, most recently as Chair. He focuses his Surfrider time on development of efficient, non-polluting water and wastewater plants and regularly provides recommendations to local public utilities. Brad is a key member of the currently active Dunes Alliance to better regulate off-road vehicle use. He is an articulate public speaker who advocates for Surfrider’s ocean conservation views in various public meetings. His college degree in meteorology enabled him to serve as a program manager for 16 years at a Silicon Valley company which performed real-time ocean meteorological forecasts and transmitted current data to merchant ships. He is currently an Account Manager at a specialty custom wire products corporation serving a worldwide market. He has surfed for 40 years starting in Orange County.
Taylor Gullikson has served as Chapter Secretary for two years. She is also originator and Program Coordinator of the Chapter's Micro Plastics Task Force. She has a BS in Biology from Cal Poly and is a grant writer for an environmental consulting firm.
Ty Griffin is Treasurer and Chapter Administrator, assisting with the treasurer tasks, monthly meeting agendas and document management. Ty has experience in business management and accounting.
Laura Pedersen is an avid scuba diver and marine protection/conservation advocate. By day she’s a licensed psychologist working in the area, and after working with patients, she enjoys walking her two dogs and taking photos on SLO County trails.
Jake McNevin has had sand in his hair his entire life. He's been surfing California's coasts, walking its beaches, and ogling its sunsets as long as he could ogle. He enthusiastically embraces the outdoors to achieve his balance and passionately works as the Climate and Clean Energy program coordinator to help the outdoors achieve its own. Jake works with Surfrider to protect the oceans and coastlines from the impacts of climate change while also advocating for clean energy solutions. He has a professional background in particle accelerator engineering and business management with an education in mechanical engineering and physics.
Through various volunteer and leadership roles, Cameron has been a Surfrider supporter and activist for over a decade — previously Chair of the South Bay Chapter (El Segundo to Palos Verdes), and now helping to produce SLO Surfrider's monthly email newsletter. As a surfer and someone who cares deeply about the environment, Cameron is proud to be a part of an organization that makes such a tangible difference at the local, state, and federal levels.
Charles Varni became an environmental activist in 1969 when the Union oil blowout in the Santa Barbara channel occurred. Many of his favorite surf spots were severely damaged, and Union oil did not give a damn. Charles has worked on many environmental campaigns in his 80 years. In the last two decades he has focused on fossil fuel infrastructure. He advocated for Surfrider to join a collaboration of individuals and organizations in opposition to building an oil train terminal at the Phillips 66 refinery in the Oceano Dunes. In this effort he represented Surfrider and also was the coalition leader for South (SLO) County mobilization. That successful campaign led to SLO County refusing to give Phillips 66 a development permit.
Charles also founded and led a grassroots citizen initiative to qualify a ballot measure which would ban new fossil fuel infrastructure in SLO County, which Surfrider strongly supported. The team gathered 30,000 signatures and raised $150,000 for the campaign to support Measure G. A coalition of Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and American Petroleum Institute spent over $8 million in SLO County funding a social media campaign of lies, distortions, and exaggerations. 125,000 voters turned out and Measure G was defeated by less than 5,000 votes.
Most recently Charles led a team that raised $100,000 to help build a walking/jogging track and soccer fields at Oceano Elementary School (go Dolphins!). Charles said that he has experienced the power of what a small group of committed people can achieve, and that he is profoundly grateful to be an Earthling.
Ji
m Miers has been surfing, paddling, hiking, and enjoying California's beaches since 1978 when he set out to see every beach area in California. He completed that quest a few years ago by hiking parts of the Lost Coast. He has served the SLO Chapter for four years as Historian, Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair.
Jim was previously Campaign Coordinator of the Save the Avila Coast campaign and represented the chapter on the Diablo Lands Working Group and the Diablo Decommissioning permit. He is actively involved in evaluating potential impacts to the environment and coastal users from various proposed renewable energy projects including the Morro Bay Offshore Wind Farm and the Vistra Battery Energy Storage System in Morro Bay and how these projects may affect the proposed Chumash National Marine Sanctuary. Jim has a law degree and a Masters in Environmental Policy and Management.
Jim resigned from the Executive Committee in September 2025.
Celia Antonia Zarate has been the Ocean Friendly Restaurants coordinator since 2022. She introduced the OFR program to eateries in San Luis Obispo County, and her role later evolved into Volunteer Ambassador for Surfrider SLO.
She has represented the SLO Chapter at multiple community events, recruited new members, done fundraising, and is regularly a site captain at beach cleanups. Repurposing items has earned her the nickname of Beach Girl at a local thrift shop, and Cal Poly students tell her she’s an ENVIE. She has traveled to Sacramento to lobby at the Capitol on behalf of Surfrider and the SLO Chapter.
Celia has over 30 years of experience in the legal industry and is now a Realtor® with GREEN and PMN designations. On most days around sunset, you can find her sporting Surfrider gear, doing a beach cleanup along the Central Coast with reef love for the beaches, waves, and ocean.
Celia resigned from the Executive Committee in October 2025.